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Theres no question from public opinion polls that people care a lot about the honesty
of the person theyre dealing with, whether thats their doctor or their political leader.
And yet its more complex than that. Often we dont want to know the truth.Do
you want to find out that your spouse is cheating on you? Do you want to find out the person
that you recommended for a job in your company is embezzling? Do you want to find out that
your kids are using ***? These of course are all things that you want to know but you
certainly dont want to know.So its very complex as to whether or not we really
want to catch a liar. We think we do. What if we find out that both of our presidential
candidates are lying? Then what do we do? Im not saying they are; I never comment
on anyone in office or running for office. Only after theyre out that theyre fair
game. . . . Clinton said, I didnt have sex with that woman and then gave her
name. "That woman" is putting her at a distance from himself.Now there are many reasons
why people lie and some are honorable. I study the lies that society cares about, cares
about catching, generally disapproves of. The most common reason why people lie is to
avoid punishment for breaking a rule. Usually some rules are broken accidentally. You
walk down the hallway too fast and you knock over a $2,000 jar thats on the stand.
You didnt mean to do that. Did you knock over that jar? Well, youre not
going to Yes, I did. . . . No, I dont know who knocked over that jar.
It wasnt knocked over when I walked by. You dont want to get punished. But there
are many times where we make the decision Im going to break a rule, Im going
to cheat, and Im going to lie about it. Im not going to admit that I cheated; I
dont want to get caught. So the decision to lie is made at the same time as the decision
to cheat.When we teach people, and we do in workshops teach people how to catch
liars, it takes us 32 hours. . . . Spotting a micro expression is the single most useful
thing. This is an expression that lasts about a 25th of a second. Weve tested
over 15,000 people in all walks of life and over 99 percent of them dont see them,
and yet with an hours training on the Internet they can learn to see them.However,
that may only tell you that the persons concealing an emotion. Thats a lie -- theyre
not telling you how they really feel. But it may not tell you that theyre the perpetrator
of a crime. Its a terrible example, but I have to use it my wife is found dead.
I will be the first suspect because, regrettably, the person most likely to kill their wife
is the husband. . . . But I love my wife! I didnt kill her. The police are wasting
their time and theyre insulting me! Time is going by and theyre not looking for
the real person. I could be furious at them and concealing my anger. And so if
you spot my concealed anger, it doesnt mean I killed my wife. It only means that
Im concealing my anger. Now if a lie is about how do you really feel, Paul, and
you spot a micro expression, then youve got it.Second, realize that only the
gestures of your cultural group are you going to recognize. Thats body specific language,
but you already know them. You cant if I asked you how many gestures are used in
America today, youd give me about 12, but there are actually 80. And if I showed you
every one of those 80, youd know what they mean.Now the one that amazingly enough
has had an enormous payoff is one of the most common ones we use, which is the headshake,
yes and no. I just did this. This is actually yes and this is no. But it occurs
in a micro fashion. So I worked on the case of an embezzler who had embezzled over $100
million. He was really big time until Bernie Madoff came along. This embezzler had accused
people in a number of banks of being in on the deal, which meant those banks would be
vulnerable to having to pay for the embezzlement. And when one of the people who he falsely
accused, he is asked, Did she help you steal the money? He said, Yes. Absolutely,
she did. Doing a slight headshake, no. Even tinier than mine.So theres a
gesture one. Theres a face one.